


Deck the Halls [By Order of the Secret Police]

by bluemoodblue



Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: Christmas, Christmas Tree, M/M, Mistletoe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-21
Updated: 2013-11-21
Packaged: 2018-01-02 05:31:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 793
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1053070
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bluemoodblue/pseuds/bluemoodblue
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Carlos decorates for Christmas; Cecil is concerned that something is wrong with his boyfriend.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Deck the Halls [By Order of the Secret Police]

**Author's Note:**

> I was going to post this closer to Christmas, but I saw a tumblr prompt that was almost the same thing, so you get it early. Really early. I'll have to write more Christmas fluff to compensate.
> 
> Also this was partially inspired by Nightmare Before Christmas.
> 
> (And it has nothing to do with the Secret Police actually. And is AU but oh well. ^_^)

Cecil was concerned.  Carlos was behaving oddly, moving boxes around, the contents of which the radio host could only guess at, and looking generally more cheerful than normal even though there was a parasitic worm slowly working its way through the various craniums of the town and it was really nothing to be happy about.

Then again, considered Cecil as he looked at his boyfriend suspiciously, hypothetically speaking, if there was a parasitic worm burrowing in Carlos’s brain, it certainly wouldn’t make its host look unhappy about the situation.  Was there any way to know for sure that there wasn’t a worm in there somewhere?  It wasn’t as though they’d prepared a set of security questions in case of such a situation; Cecil had been meaning to, but things had just gotten busy recently around the station.

Cecil was about to try some science, just to be sure that his boyfriend was still his boyfriend, when he arrived at the apartment one day and discovered that one of the boxes was halfway unpacked.  On the table, nestled in tissue paper like an unusual nest, were several shiny, round orbs, attached to some kind of hook fixture.  He picked up a red one curiously by the hook.  His own face was reflected back at him, slightly distorted, and he almost dropped it with a thrill of fear that always accompanied any of his interactions with reflective surfaces.

Carlos walked in then, smiling at finding Cecil there early.  Before he could greet his boyfriend or walk over to snatch a kiss (because he could do that now, a that fact would never not be thrilling), Cecil held up the bauble with an almost accusatory expression.  He pointed to it.  “What’s this?”

“It’s… an ornament?  For Christmas?”  Cecil’s expression didn’t change in the slightest.  “Do you… not celebrate it?”  It was difficult to imagine that Cecil hadn’t heard of Christmas at all, but it was also difficult to imagine a lot of the things that happened in Night Vale.  Carlos had learned to stop being surprised by things like that, especially after Valentine’s Day when flowers and chocolate earned him a horrified shriek from Cecil and three days of silent treatment before he managed to explain the misunderstanding.  He hoped Christmas didn’t have a similar connotation; Carlos really liked Christmas.  Cecil’s expression was not very encouraging.

“What do you do with it?”  Cecil tapped the ornament hesitantly, watching it swing a bit.

“You, um, hang it on a tree.  That you bring inside.  And put presents under.”  Cecil was clearly not getting it, and it was little wonder because Carlos was doing a grand job of explaining the concept.  “It’s sort of a good-will kind of thing.”

“Is it a ritual for good luck?  Because it seems very complicated.”  Cecil replaced the ornament in the tissue and caught sight of something still tucked away into the box.  “And what is this,” he asked, removing a winged figure.

“That’s an angel.”

Cecil narrowed his eyes.  “Well, it doesn’t look at all like an angel.  If angels actually existed.”

Their afternoon together was entirely taken over with discussions of Christmas, with Cecil looking equal parts incredulous and intrigued.  He wasn’t sold on the idea of Christmas trees and the reflective surfaces of their decorations, but he was enthusiastic at the description of tacky sweaters, gingerbread houses, and gift exchanges.

His enthusiasm only grew as he helped Carlos decorate and learned Christmas carols, and Carlos chuckled as Cecil came on the radio and once again tried to explain to his listeners the concept of the holiday.

“Listen, everyone: today Carlos told me something new about Christmas, and I just had to share it with all of you.  Apparently, it’s traditional to decorate one’s home with electrical lights.  Now, I know a few of you might be hesitant to embrace such a practice after the strain of contagious wildfires that passed through our town several weeks ago, but I believe that a little festive spirit can go a long way towards community togetherness and camaraderie.  Do your part to make Night Vale shine like a beacon in a vast, unforgiving wasteland, summoning weary travelers close before they are pounced upon and consumed by the unrelenting nothingness that their entire existences will do nothing to change, and we’ll show those horrible people over in Desert Bluffs who has real Christmas spirit!”

As it turned out, Carlos later discovered, Cecil’s idea of “real Christmas spirit” was covering almost his entire ceiling with mistletoe before Carlos arrived for their date.  He stared up at all of it for a very long time, blushing scarlet, before mentally shrugging and deciding that there were worse ways to spend the holidays than with a few kisses.


End file.
